A leak in one NYCHA tenant's apartment has the agency answering to the larger issue of leaks throughout housing. Susan Jhun filed the following NY1 for You report.
Peeling paint and plaster is an all-too-common sight for tenants throughout housing, and one NYCHA tenant, Grace Johnson, is sick of seeing it in her bathroom.
"I have paint chips falling down," Johnson said. "Who wants to use a dirty bathroom? Who wants to live like that? Who should have to live that way?"
Johnson has had to live that way for two years now at the Grant Houses in Morningside Heights. She says her endless attempts to get NYCHA to fix the leak have been useless.
"I had at least half a dozen housing inspectors come and told me they'll be back in 10 days or two weeks. It's been two years," she said.
NY1 asked NYCHA to look into Johnson's case. A spokesman said after our call, an inspector was sent to Johnson's apartment and staff replaced an aging bathtub faucet in the apartment above, which appears to have been a contributing factor in the leak. He went on to say plastering and painting are scheduled for the impacted wall.
NY1 also asked what NYCHA is doing to address the prevalent problem of leaks in housing. The spokesman said NYCHA plans to spend upwards of $700 million on brickwork and roof repairs over the next five years, including $300 million over three years for roof replacements. He went on to say that the first $100 million of replacement work is underway on 66 roofs, impacting 13,000 residents, and $200 million more is allocated for the next two years.
Those are numbers that tenants like Johnson hope will be reflected in effective repairs.
I am happy they made an effort because [NY1] got behind them. And hopefully this works, because I’ve been going through this for a very long time," she said.